Even if Your Balcony is Small It’s Time to Grow Again!

Guest Blogger Jan Peccarrari Visits a Farmers’ Market and a Plant Outlet to make the most of her small balcony.

This was written last year, but it was late for finding the best plants. Now the weather is still cold in New England , but you can buy the plants and set up your balcony, porch or back patio before the plants go out at the end of May.

“Today I went to the farmer’s market. They have some organic produce but it is outrageously expensive. They also had jewelry (no thanks); baked goods (a loaf of sliced rustic Italian bread I bought), the nut guy (I bought Mexican chocolate covered pecans), candles (1 lavender; 1 patchouli and 1 lavender, rose and something mix), the oil guy ( Lemon and basil oil), an other venders such as bakers, spice rub venders, wine venders, the pasta man (His stuff is really good but costly and I shouldn’t have pasta anymore). They had plants; both flowers and herbs, honey, the pie lady (She has a frequent pier program and if you buy so many you get a free pie (time for that insulin drip).”

“Then I went and bought some plants at a well known nursery called Fran’s. They recently donated to beautiful hanging baskets of flowers for our porchetta dinner . There I bought lavender, oregano and chives.

So now, going left to right I have 3 pots of lavender on a stand; 2 buckets of sweet pea (five gallon buckets with tomato cages over to allow the little devils to grow up on. I also strung macramé twine down into each bucket to give additional areas to climb). I have a low planter between the big buckets that has (for the moment) spinach and will plant the oregano into tomorrow. Then scattered along the rest of the balcony are basil plants (3 purchased and 3 from seed)), a house plant that I have no name for, the chives and then a 3-tiered plant stand that has on the lower 2 levels large pots with cucumbers in them. The idea is that the cucumber plants will climb upwards as they are want to do. The top most tier has basil but will be moved if the cucumbers become aggressive. Then I have two house plants, a Christmas cactus and a huge spider plant.”

“I left a little room to stretch out my lounge chair for a little sun when possible. The apartment that shares our balcony is currently vacant so until someone moves in I can squat on their balcony.”

“Indoors I have my orchid, an aloe Vera that a co-worker gave me (a baby) and three Ti plants. They are Hawaiian and I am trying to get them to take root. I bought them on line and they are starting to get little bumps on them so I am hopeful.”

“I recently planted 7 flowering plants in planters at the Carroll Center for the Blind outside our technology center. If they bloom they look (according to a friend) like feathers. That will attract hummingbirds. Fingers crossed.”